Native Pacifican Anthony McCarley fulfilled his childhood dream last August when he successfully completed a swim across the English Channel.

Soon after, however, the 55-year-old sought to add a couple more challenging swims -- swimming around Manhattan Island and crossing the Catalina Channel -- to finish what's known as the Triple Crown in open water swimming.

Only 93 swimmers have ever done that. Only eight have done it in less than one year, as he did.

He crossed the English Channel in August 2013 in 13 hours, 29 minutes, the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 9 hours, 40 minutes on June 28, and the Catalina Channel three week later in 13 hours. His times were recorded by each agency that oversaw each event and reported by the World Open Water Swim Association based in Huntington Beach.

"Five years ago, I just looked up to those swimmers in incredible awe. I couldn't believe that people could do that. Even though it's been a month now, it's still great thinking I'm on that list. I'm on the list with so many elite swimmers. Everything has changed for me. My definition of a long swim has changed. My definition of what is cold had changed. It's all through training," he said.

McCarley, CEO of InteHealth, a company that connected multiple health care systems, lives in Berwick, Pennsylvania with his wife, Carolyn Wukitch, and their two children, Benjamin 5, and Alexandra, 2, who are already really good swimmers, McCarley said.

His niece Lindsey Passmore and sister Sandra Passmore from Pacifica were there for all three swims.

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"Once I swam the English Channel, the next logical thing was to do the Triple Crown. I'm addicted to the sport. It's a great community, a great workout. It's a healthy addiction, you can't stop. They talk about certain swims being someone's 'gateway' swim like a gateway drug. Now I understand that," he said.

He said the English Channel swim was colder, longer and rougher than the other two.

"The English Channel was really the ultimate. It was physically harder than the other two," he said.

Circling Manhattan Island was a 28.5 mile swim. McCarley said he got a little help from the tides.

"Manhattan was a great sense of relief. It's done as a race. There's so much boat traffic, though. And it was hot. I'm trained for cold water now," he said.

The current worked against him on the Catalina swim. His speed slowed down.

"Catalina was harder," he said, "but it was such a great sense of accomplishment to finish the Triple Crown."

McCarley had friends in Catalina who went to the finish spot. They led everyone in a big parking lot down to the spot where McCarley was coming ashore and cheered him on.

"That was nice. Usually when you finish, you are the only one there," he said.

What keeps his mind active during all those long, solitary hours in the water?

"I do a lot of math," he said, "I do fractions and percentages about how much I have done and how much I have left," he said.

What's next? He might swim Tahoe -- the long way across -- next year. Only 24 people have completed that swim.

"It's kind of calling my name," he said.

Other ideas include joining a friend who is swimming the three rivers of Pittsburgh or swimming from Anacapa Island off Santa Barbara back to the mainland.

A lot of people have congratulated him, but McCarley said what is most meaningful is when they said they did something more active, something they didn't initially want to do, such as bracing for the cold water in a colder swimming pool or swimming more laps than they ordinarily would have done.

"I did this because it was my dream, but when people tell me that, it is really moving. One colleague walked an extra mile because she knew about my swim. When I have a bad day and think about those who have swum an extra lap, I know I have set a good example," he said.